Dell Launches Linux-Based Load-Balancing Server

By Thor Olavsrud,
internetnews.com

Dell Computer Corp. Tuesday
launched PowerApp.BIG-IP, its latest PowerApp appliance server for
managing and routing Internet traffic.

PowerApp.BIG-IP is pre-configured with F5 Networks’ BIG-IP Controller
software, an award-winning software that can intelligently load
balance and manage Internet content and traffic.

Dell’s new Linux-based appliance server routes incoming traffic
to servers that can best respond to the need, balancing the traffic
across Web server farms and e-commerce applications and eliminating
single points of failure. Dell said that by allocating user
requests across multiple servers, PowerApp.BIG-IP eases network
traffic overload and reduces the burden on Web servers.

It is a turnkey device in a rack-dense 2U server. It is
available in fixed configurations with defined processor, memory
disk drives and optional SSL-accelerator card and high-speed
gigabit NICs. It can be ordered in both single and redundant pairs.
Custom configuration and tuning services are also available through
Dell Services. Dell (NASDAQ:DELL)
plans to ship the PowerApp.BIG-IP in October, starting at about
$7,900 for fixed configurations.

The PowerApp.BIG-IP is targeted at ISPs, ASPs, dot-coms,
enterprise and online retailers.

“The PowerApp.BIG-IP is yet another arrow in our quiver of
low-cost and simple-to-deploy appliance servers to address the
build-out of the Internet infrastructure,” said Michael Lambert,
senior vice president of Dell’s Enterprise Systems Group. “Earlier
this year, we introduced PowerApp appliance servers to serve Web
pages and offer caching capabilities — we now offer a full
portfolio of PowerApp appliances to allow our customers to
capitalize on the growth of the new Internet economy.”